


Alex Goes Through Dragon Puberty

by Ultraviollett



Category: Adventurers Wanted Series - M. L. Forman
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Parental Whalen Vankin, Post-Canon, character going through dragon puberty, why am i even tagging? there are 8 fics in this fandom, world study, you're not exactly going to be filtering this stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24826657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultraviollett/pseuds/Ultraviollett
Summary: After the events of the Axe of Sundering, Whalen has been affected by his actual death experience. Alex offers to take care of him, but what happens to their relationship once Alex's dragon traits start to manifest?
Relationships: Alexander "Alex" Taylor & Whalen Vankin
Comments: 7
Kudos: 9





	Alex Goes Through Dragon Puberty

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is just me trying to add some development to the world of Adventurer's Wanted, but getting distracted by my favourite trope of a character getting some non-human traits. It's also me abusing the found family trope, because I want it. Fatherly Whalen is now called Dadlen, it's official.

Alex hadn’t noticed Whalen behaving differently after they completed their last adventure. It had been foolish, he looked back on it, to ignore the health of his mentor, but with just how busy they were, there was no time to stop and check for any injuries less than a broken leg. Even then, both he and Whalen were powerful enough to magick a leg back to a point where the injury could be walked on lightly. They’d gone to Mr. Clutter’s place immediately after sorting everything out in the kingdom, intending to record the details of their latest adventure. Mr Clutter had set out tea and a few biscuits, and they were halfway through a retelling of meeting Joshua when Whalen suddenly collapsed. 

He’d been eating a small cookie, sitting in a borrowed armchair. Then his words slowed down in a matter of seconds as he slumped forward, almost to the ground. Alex was quick enough to catch him before his head hit the floor. Whalen had woken up eventually, but not until Alex had been reduced to tears trying everything he could to wake his mentor back up.

After that had been countless trips to healers throughout the known lands. They’d discovered that coming back from death had caused… complications in the mind. Whalen would black out every so often, approximately once or twice a day. His mind would fall unconscious, his breathing would slow, and he would remain that way until about fifteen to twenty minutes had passed. Along with the blackout, he also suffered from bouts of dizziness, partial loss of feeling in his limbs, and a lack of appetite. It’s like his soul and his body need time to reconnect, the healers said, this could continue for about half a year at most, but eventually the symptoms will disappear, and the blackouts will become less frequent. You just need to be patient.

And it was infuriating. Being patient wasn’t something he was used to. Though he’d gained a bit of it from his adventurers, the feeling of being utterly incapable to help his mentor tore him to shreds. He wanted to scream when the healers said there was nothing they could do, scream the blame towards them for leaving Whalen weak and collapsing every day from his condition. But Whalen would be disappointed in him for that. So the blame threatening to pour out of his mouth found its way inwards, and he disciplined himself with a constant reminder that it was his fault Whalen was like this. Alex had been the one to bring him back from the other side of the wall, and he’d obviously done it wrong. If he’d done it right, Whalen would be happy and healthy now. All this potential he had, all the magic flowing inside him, and yet he’d failed his friend.

Whalen himself seemed to have accepted it, seemingly unbothered. He even tried to comfort Alex about his condition and repeated multiple times that Alex had been the one to save him, not hurt him. Whalen was the one in pain, and still he comforted Alex and not the other way around. The guilt worsened, sinking deep into his gut. 

So when the healers mentioned that Whalen needed someone to care for him in the next few months, Alex begged Whalen to let him have this duty. He was opposed to it, at first, stating that Whalen was the mentor and it was Whalen’s duty to take care of him instead of the opposite. He had other wizard friends who would agree to look after him. But he finally agreed for three reasons: 

Firstly, Alex was the one who had pulled Whalen from the dead, and being the only person to have done so, he was theoretically the one who would know most about what might happen. 

Secondly, Alex had been made to promise Whalen that he’d take a break with him. After the fall of the brotherhood, many countries were struggling with several important dignitaries being revealed as loyal to the brotherhood, or some even going missing. Alex had planned to help as many of the known lands as he could from the event, But Whalen had made him agree to stand back and rest at least a little bit from their last adventure. Alex agreed rather stiffly, the desire to keep pushing himself to save others was strong, but he understood why Whalen thought a break would help. Besides, Whalen had said nothing against helping remotely, which, with a few geebs and other magic trips, Alex planned to take full advantage of.

Finally, despite his young age, Alex was a powerhouse of a wizard. Whalen had admitted that compared to all the wizards he had as friends or met as he’d travelled for many years across the known lands, Alex was the strongest he’d seen in raw magic potential. If anything went wrong, Alex would be the best person to help.

After he agreed, they needed to decide which person’s house they would live at. While Alex’s house had enough room and a scenic view, it was quaint and too far away from civilization. Whalen’s house was larger, and held enough materials that no wizard could scoff at. There were specific rooms just for a certain branch of potion making, meditation, or spell practicing. And each room was fully equipped. The spell practice room had barriers preventing spells from leaving the rooms in case of emergencies, several training staffs, and training dummies of different shapes and sizes. The kitchens had every commonly found food item, and a few not so commonly found. The living room had a cozy fireplace that was surrounded by several couches. Not to mention the entire house was covered under heavy layers of protection and non-detection charms. It was obvious which house would suit their needs better. 

They settled into a routine. Alex would wake up at seven, and practice cooking by making breakfast for him and Whalen. He was slowly getting better at the art, and maybe in his next adventure, he’d be able to assist or even be the assigned cook. Whalen would come down to eat at eight if he wasn’t stopped by any blackouts, and would enjoy his meal at the table while Alex talked to different representatives from the known lands about the best ways to proceed, since most had lost a significant enough portion of their government. Rallian, now the prince of Nezza, was his most frequent caller. 

They spoke using one of Whalen’s original spells, which conjured a mirage of the person who you were communicating with before you and you before them. It was strange at first to watch someone made out of light walk around your living room, casting a glow on your face as you spoke, but it was now his favoured method of communicating.

Rallian’s kingdom was having the most problems, but it was slowly getting better. Small rebellions rose up sporadically, and he’d had to appoint guards to protect himself from assassins, but most of the population adored him. There was a lot of unease surrounding his proposals to start easing restrictions around adventurers and magic, but progress was still being made, and Rallian was hoping that a complete acceptance of the currently outlawed activities would happen in his lifetime.

After eating breakfast, Whalen had taken to coming up with new potion combinations and meditating frequently. Alex always made sure he was less than two rooms away, but the slow falling spell on Whalen made sure that if he ever fell unconscious he’d drift to the floor slowly until Alex could magic him onto a couch and wait until he came back. They usually lasted 15 or so minutes, but they were getting shorter every time. 

When lunch came around, Alex would once again make it. After lunch came spell or sword practice, and then right before dinner he’d contact several adventurers if they were needed to help sort out anything in Nezza or even the Westland of Jarro, which was shaken by what Jabez had attempted.

It was rather nice living with Whalen. Oftentimes when he was practicing, Whalen would sit on the mats of the training room and check his technique, or offer encouragement. He never complained about Alex’s cooking either, even when he burnt the bacon to a charcoal black colour. His knowledge of history was detailed and very in depth. When Alex complained to him about his daily calls, he revealed he knew a lot of tricks to convince snotty diplomats to accept certain ideas, or even just pretend that a spell was malfunctioning if he didn’t want to listen to them anymore. They played board games when Alex had free time, and Whalen taught him tiny spells like one to easily change the temperature of the fireplace. It was one of the most relaxed times in Alex’s life since he first started adventuring, and he began to think of Whalen as part of his family.

Which is why when it started happening, the first thing he did was tell Whalen.

His teeth had been hurting him for a couple of days now, but he’d been magicking a numbing spell and just waiting for it to go away, thinking it had been a toothache. Maybe he’d been grinding his teeth too much over the anxiety of all the responsibilities he now had. The night before, the pain had increased so much that he’d taken a potion to get him to sleep, since the numbing spell had started to lose its effect. Whalen had wanted him to go to sleep even earlier, but he argued that he signed up to help Whalen recover, and he wasn’t going to let a toothache stop him from doing just that. With all the pain he was in plus an oncoming headache, he wasn’t sure that a potion would help him much. But as soon as he drank it, he felt his eyelids flip flopping on his eyes, as the desire to sleep tried to overtake his need to be in his bed when that happened. As soon as he laid down, that was it.

It felt like seconds had passed when he woke up, but he could tell he’d slept from how much more energy he had. Thankfully, the toothache had faded to a mildly annoying pain. He stretched out from his bed, giving out a yawn as he pulled his hands up to feel more awake. But as he brought his mouth closed again, he realized just how odd the sensation felt. It was as if he couldn’t close his mouth properly. He explored the inside using his tongue, trying to figure out the issue. His teeth were… out of place, like they had shifted from where they’d been last night.

With a growing sense of urgency, the blanket on top of Alex was flung away so he could rush to the nearest bathroom for a mirror. His hands met the counter to slow him down from his dash as he looked up to see his face.

His teeth, they were…

His incisors stayed outside of his mouth as he bit down, and they’d both grown longer to form twin fangs. Fangs. He had fangs. Slowly, his hands reached up to his face to slowly touch the pointed teeth, sliding up and down the enamel to prove to his brain that they were really there. He had fangs.

“Whalen?” exiting the bathroom slower than he entered, in a daze, he called out to his mentor. “Whalen? Can you come here?” he said with a wobbling voice, picking up the pace as he hurried to his mentor’s room.

As he opened the door to Whalen’s bedroom, he noticed Whalen’s eyes already open, probably just awake from his call.

“What is it, my dear boy?” pushing the covers off of himself, Whalen blinked blearily at Alex until he remembered to grab his glasses. Anxious, Alex opened his mouth to reveal his two large teeth, pointing at them insistently.

“I don’t know how this happened, It explains the toothaches, but how- what would I have done to cause this?”

Whalen peered closely at the teeth, staring at the shape. They curved slowly down the mouth, the sharp point ending at the start of the chin. Serrated edges were hidden at the back, two for each tooth.

“If I’m not mistaken… those look a lot like the teeth of a certain subset of dragon.”

“Which one?”

“... I think you know.”

“Silver dragon,” Alex wanted to hold those words in his chest and never let them out, but they escaped regardless, “My other form. But I can’t- I don’t-”

He was hyperventilating in front of Whalen, the breaths ignoring his wishes to slow down, and instead forcing him to wheeze and stopping air from circulating in his lungs. His throat closed up, and his heart felt pushed up against his ribcage as it beat faster and faster. 

“Alex, please, calm down! Just, breathe slowly.”

“But I, I can’t have this,” He tried to reach up to point at his teeth but it instead came out as a weak movement of his arm. “People will- they will-”

The thought of strangers looking at him, gawking at him, made him want to crawl inside a cave and never come up. He flashed back to memories of his first adventure, of his company and him laughing after they had killed Slathbog. How Andy had remarked he was sad Alex had done the work, and how he wished he had the chance to charge it, kill it.

Maybe I could have taken a tooth as a souvenir, he laughed.

They all laughed.

“I, I have to go,” Alex didn’t have an excuse to leave the situation, but his irrational fear wouldn’t let him stay here. Whalen wouldn’t- No one would want to see him like this.

Before he could look at Whalen’s expression or allow himself to be convinced by his words, he scrambled out of the room, then ran down the flight of stairs, clawing at the stair’s railing to help him flee. The lock on the door was hard to open with his arms shaking as much as they were. With one last click, it unlocked, and he was outside.

It was raining, and the soggy dirt road schlopped against his feet, sticking in between his bare toes. He’d forgotten to get shoes, and he was still in his nightwear. The rain made it cling to his body. Not many people were out of their houses yet, it was early morning Sunday, but whenever he heard any voices, he was quick to turn in another direction, though he wasn’t sure where he was walking. 

Eventually, he ended up in an alleyway far from any sounds, and the only thing he could hear was the steady drizzle of the rain on the houses, the road paths, and the part of the body that wasn’t shielded by the roof's edge. It calmed him slightly, when he just focused on the rain.

He didn’t want anyone to see him like this. People liked him as a wizard, it was a special trait that helped others and conjured miracles. People also liked him as an adventurer, it made him seem honourable and selfless, conjuring images of saving villages and assisting kingdoms. But he hid his draconic status. Most dragons were volatile and greedy with their gold. They needed to be found and killed, for the good of the population. Even the dragons who rose above their nature had to be separated from regular people. They were too intimidating, no matter how much they had their instincts under control, their spiked tails could crush a man with its weight, an accidental placement of their claws would rip someone in half, and if they smiled, you’d see their teeth, stained with animals blood and able to fit a full caravan of travelers inside their laugh-

“Alex!” he heard his name through his thoughts.

It sounded like Whalen’s voice, finding him huddling in the secluded street. But that was impossible, Whalen should be safe at home and waiting for Alex to return-

“Alex!” Whalen walked into his line of sight as he rounded a building. He hobbled over to Alex, as fast as he could go as he walked with a cane. When he reached him, he sat down next to him, kneeling down slowly and then dropping down clumsily when he lost his balance.

“You shouldn’t run off like that, young man.” It was supposed to come out scolded, but he seemed too tired and out of breath to properly commit.

“I’m sorry,” Alex shrunk into himself, “I got overwhelmed,” He admitted. Which was stupid of him. Overreacting to something as small as this? He wasn’t much of an adventurer if this got to him, he’d been in much more dire circumstances and been completely composed, but he was affected by this? If this was how he reacted, he must not be as good as he thought he was, as everyone thought he-

He didn’t realize he was hyperventilating until Whalen placed a hand on his shoulder. “Breathe, Alex, with me.” 

He placed a hand on his chest and breathed audibly, urging Alex to copy him. When Whalen pierced his lips to show him breathing out, Alex forced his ragged lungs down to do the same. They stayed like that for a while, breathing in sync, as the rain fell down around them.

“You need to stay inside, Whalen,” Alex spoke first. “What if you had blacked out while walking to me? I wouldn’t be there to catch you and get you somewhere safe.”

“I assure you, I am fine. Nothing happened to me.”

“But it could’ve! You shouldn’t risk yourself just so I can feel better.”

“On the contrary, Alex. That’s exactly what I should be doing.”

Alex didn’t speak for a while, digesting his words in the silence. It was a.. new idea, and maybe one day soon, he'd think more on it.

Instead, he decided to turn his focus onto more pressing questions.

“So what is this? Why would a dragon trait manifest now of all times?”

Whalen appeared pensive for a moment, bringing his hand up to his chin in thought. “Perhaps it's the sudden increase in new power with your position as guardian of the wall. Or maybe after a few years of living in the magical world, you’re finally getting the effects of your dragon side. It could even be a completely natural process that happens to everyone whose part dragon at your age. It’s hard to tell when there are so few of your kind.”

"How do I get them to go away?" He steeled himself for the answer. 

"I'd wager they're there to stay.”

Of course. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. Maybe if he became a hermit for the rest of his life, or if ski masks came into fashion, he’d be completely fine with it. 

“But I…” Alex breathed slowly, working up the courage to confront the issue, “What will people think when they see me with them? And what of all my adventuring friends, who kill creatures for a living? They- I’ll scare them.”

“I can teach you several charms and glamours to hide them in public, if you wish, but they're a part of you now. I highly doubt your friends will turn on you because of a minor change in face, but if they do leave, they weren’t such good friends in the first place.”

“I suppose…”

“How about we take this day off as a break? You can think over this thing in peace, and get more used to your fangs.”

Startled, Alex furrowed his eyebrows like he must have misheard what Whalen said. “What about the delegates I was supposed to talk to today? If I don’t contact them, who knows what-”

“They’ll survive for a day, send them a geeb saying personal issues came up. It’s wonderful how much you’ve helped, but if the known lands collapse because you needed time off, we’d have a bigger problem than you getting a break.”

Alex chose not to reply to that, he just leaned onto Whalen’s shoulder. The rain was nice, with how it muffled the sounds around it and replaced it with its own tempo. Random drops fell, but all together, it held a pattern. Still, they’d overstayed their welcome, Alex could feel the water soaking into the clothes where he sat down, and it was getting a little cold. Rainy days like this would be better spent inside, clean and warm and relaxed.

“Okay. What should we do?”

**Author's Note:**

> yeah so it's just me exploring Alex's savior complex because I can. I feel like the society of Adventurer's Wanted wouldn't be that nice about anything different and would readily dehumanize a lot of people, because remember that one part in the book where it said that bandits weren't considered human by the general populace? Yeah, that was wild.   
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, please kudos, comment if you can, keysmash in that box if you feel like it, et cetera.


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